See upcoming professional development events created by the EAD team below.
[tribe_events view=”list” category=”professional-development”]
Upcoming Events
Explore the 2025 PD catalog offerings!
Supporting deeper history and civic learning for young people has never been more important, and to do that, educators themselves need access to effective professional learning experiences that help them deepen subject matter and instructional expertise and navigate the challenges and tensions of teaching in a complex climate.
That’s why we are delighted to share with you this catalog of professional development offerings focused on history and civic learning. Effective, accessible, and practical, these professional learning experiences are the work of six organizations that first came together in 2019 to answer the questions: “How can we achieve excellence in history and civics for all learners in K-12? How can we prepare students to be informed, engaged, and responsible citizens who actively participate in our constitutional democracy?”
The answer to these questions are in the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy (EAD), a framework created through the collaborative effort of more than 300 educators, scholars, and practitioners–a group whose members hail from all corners of the U.S. and who represent a broad diversity of roles, perspectives, and ideologies. The EAD Roadmap is an inquiry-based content framework in history and civics to guide the design of learning experiences and curricula that help all students develop understanding of our plural yet shared history, skills for civil disagreement and productive civic participation, and reflective patriotism.
Since the release of the EAD Roadmap in 2021, the six organizations whose 2025 offerings are represented in the catalog have worked individually and collaboratively to explore how this powerful framework can inform professional learning experiences. Some offerings address specific aspects of using the EAD Roadmap. Others align broadly with the spirit and principles of the EAD Roadmap. All provide educators with the opportunity to become more effective facilitators of deeper civic and history learning for their students.
We hope in the coming year you will explore some of the offerings in this catalog. Perhaps you’ll even use the EAD Roadmap to design your own lessons, units, or professional development offerings–and if you do, let us know how it goes! While the EAD Roadmap offers guidance and direction, the path toward sustaining a thriving constitutional democracy is forged by each one of us, in the daily decisions, commitments, and efforts we make educators and civic participants–and that journey is better shared!
Join us for a series of virtual workshops on the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy (EAD). The series will dive into the seven themes of the Roadmap, exploring the content and pedagogical approaches to strengthen history and civics instruction in the classroom. These interactive sessions will provide you with the opportunity to connect with peers and experts in the field.
Join us for the full series! Register now and add all of the upcoming sessions to your calendar:
- Session 1: Introduction to the EAD Roadmap and Being an EAD Teacher – Watch On-Demand Recording
- Session 2: Engaging and Preparing Youth as Civic Participants in our Constitutional Democracy – Watch On-Demand Recording
- Session 3: Exploring How Communities Shape the Land, and How Land Shapes Communities – Watch On-Demand Recording
- Session 4: Balancing the Aspirations and Tensions of “We the People of the United States – Watch On-Demand Recording
- Session 5: The Principles and Purposes of the Constitution – Watch On-Demand Recording
- Session 6: Exploring Moments of Change: How American Political Institutions and Society Transform – Watch On-Demand Recording
- Session 7: Making Connections: Understanding the U.S. and the American People in a Global Context – Watch On-Demand Recording
- Session 8: Contemporary Debates: Investigating How Historical Narratives Shape Current Political Arguments – Watch On-Demand Recording
This podcast aims to share our journey of sustaining Arizona’s interests in reforms to civic education by working with civic educators in our state. This work is being done by the Center for American Civics at Arizona State University. I am your host, Liz Evans, Civic Education Program Director at ASU, and I will interview Arizona teachers, content experts, and leaders in civic education. We hope you enjoy our journey to make Arizona a national civics model!
The Bill of Rights Institute professional development events combine robust educational content with an energetic community of participants. Topics range across the history, government, and civics curriculum and cover content and pedagogy.
Offerings Include:
- Immigration and Citizenship PD/Conference Session
- First Amendment/Free Speech PD
- Teaching with Primary Sources
- Slavery and the Founding
- Gilded Age and Progressive Era
- Presidential Powers
This three-day institute introduces educators to the Democratic Knowledge Project’s year-long 8th grade civics curriculum, Civic Engagement in Our Democracy. The curriculum seeks to help students identify what they value, deepen what they understand, and develop what they can do to be self-caring, reciprocal, and self-confident changemakers and was developed in collaboration with Massachusetts
educators.
At the institute, teachers and school and district leaders will participate in large group plenary sessions highlighting key aspects of the curriculum, small group sessions focused on implementation strategies, and break-out sessions on topics of their choice. All sessions develop knowledge and skills around core civics pedagogies and instructional strategies.
The institute will be held twice in 2025.
Session 1: July 15-17 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, MA
Session 2: Sept 16-18 in Marlborough, MA
The cost of attendance is $750 per person. Space is limited.
Gain new insights and develop strategies to strengthen civic and history learning in your classroom and school. In the Institute’s online courses, learn from the country’s leading scholars, including Institute director Danielle Allen of Harvard University. Participants will also engage in group discussions with fellow K-12 and higher ed colleagues from around the country and receive feedback and support from experienced educators.
What You’ll Learn:
- Deepen both your content knowledge and pedagogical skills as you get feedback from coaches, participate in small group discussions, and design learning activities.
- Develop learning experiences that you can use in your own context, with either students or colleagues.
- Topics include founding documents, such as the Constitution; key periods of history, such as the Vietnam War; and pedagogical topics, such as navigating difficult conversations in the classroom.
These courses are designed for all educators, whether you are classroom teacher, instructional coach, school leader, professional developer, higher ed faculty, or work in a museum or cultural institution. These courses will all be offered again in the 2025-26 school year.
One of the Democratic Knowledge Project initiatives at Harvard Graduate School of Education, DESE Civics Pathways is a free professional learning series for K-12 teachers that focuses on civics instruction and learning. Educators can choose from multiple workshops and online modules to personalize a pathway for their needs, learning preferences, and schedules. Topics include powerful pedagogies for civic learning in elementary and secondary grades, and the Massachusetts student-led civics project.
The DESE Civics Pathways are an initiative of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, developed and facilitated by Massachusetts public school teachers with support from Project Zero and the Democratic Knowledge Project at Harvard University, iCivics, and the Collaborative for Educational Services.
Each of the three pathways includes:
- An in-person workshop day (up to 7 PDPs)
- Interactive virtual workshops (1 hour, 20 mins / 2 PDPs each)
- Self-guided online learning modules (6 hours / 9 PDPs each)
- Peer-to-peer learning hours (1 hour / 1.5 PDPs each)
You can follow a pathway in its entirety OR pick and choose components in or across pathways according to your needs.
Workshops are $15 for educators outside of MA (and non-public school teachers in MA). MA public school educators, through June 30, 2025, enroll in workshops and modules free of charge, as their participation is supported by a grant from the MA Department of Education.
Developed in partnership between the Lou Frey Institute at the University of Central Florida and IllinoisCivics.org, the Guardians of Democracy Program is an online professional development program with extended learning opportunities for interested 6-12 educators. Our goal is to support a national professional development program and establish a network of certified educators across disciplines that embrace the proven practices of civic education to equip young people for college, career, and civic life success.
This course is inspired by the landmark report, Guardian of Democracy: The Civic Mission of Schools published by The Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools. This report outlines six proven practices of civic education.
Ensuring students develop the necessary skills to become engaged members of our self-governing society requires schools and districts committed to civic education. This includes investing in educators through robust professional development and access to high-quality curriculum and classroom resources.
This is where iCivics can support you. We are pleased to now offer professional learning pathways to districts designed to ensure educators are trained to better support their students’ civic content knowledge, inquiry, and information literacy skills as they evolve in real-time. Our team’s coaching, paired with our best-in-class curriculum, will save your teachers time, build their capacity, and positively impact student outcomes. Together, we will build the best pathway forward.
Pathway Courses Include:
- Implemeting a Core Civics and History Curriculum for 8th Grade
- Civics 101 & 102
- Fostering an Inquiry-based Classroom
- Instructional Leader Pathway
- Information Media Literacy in a Digital Age
- Elementary Civics and Social Studies
- Civics and Literacy
- Social Studies Coodinator Pathway
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation is proud to offer the Monticello Teacher Institute (MTI), an immersive professional development program that provides social studies teachers the opportunity to research and study at Monticello and the Jefferson Library in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Participating teachers will:
- Engage in a collaborative environment, facilitated by group excursions, discussions with leading Jefferson scholars, and other focused workshops.
- Conduct research to bolster their historical understanding and build resources for their classrooms.
- Tackle the complex history of Jefferson and Monticello, including race, slavery, and freedom.
- Experience the power of place on the Monticello mountaintop through artifacts, oral
histories, the landscape, and more. - Return to their schools to act as ambassadors for MTI by engaging students and fellow educators in Jefferson’s ideas and the history of Monticello.
MTI is aligned with five EAD themes: Civic Participation, Our Changing Landscape, We the People, A New Government and Constitution, and Contemporary Debates & Possibilities.
Session 1: Sunday, July 13 – Friday, July 18
Session 2: Sunday, July 27 – Friday, August 1
Blogs
As the school year gets into full swing, so does the implementation of EAD. Below are some highlights of how the EAD Roadmap and Pedagogy Companion are being implemented across the country:
- Thirty teachers—elementary to high school—from around Arizona made up the first teacher task force to be trained by the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University to implement the EAD Roadmap in classrooms. The Rebuilding Arizona Civics website houses resources such as a podcast documenting the journey, lessons, and spotlights.
- A new Indiana law requires every middle school student in the state to take a civics course by 2023, but the law does not provide detailed guidance about course content and objectives or about how to prepare educators to design and teach such a course. Through its Civic Renewal through Education for Agency program, Ball State University aims to provide a working model for Indiana and other states to explore, test, and adapt. A major factor positioning Ball State to develop and disseminate innovative and exceptional approaches to improve the quality of American civics instruction is alignment with the Educating for American Democracy initiative.
- This year, 30 teachers in 13 local education agencies across Massachusetts are teaching the Democratic Knowledge Project’s EAD-aligned 8th-grade civics curriculum Civic Engagement in Our Democracy. The curriculum was one of only four recognized by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) as comprehensive, yearlong core civics materials meeting DESE’s standards for high quality. DKP also released a new whitepaper on rethinking how we measure, record, and report student learning in K–12. The paper proposes a new competency-based approach to student assessment to help us better understand student growth and achievement, spark innovation, drive smart investments in K–12 education, and inform decision-making by students, families, educators, and employers. The paper highlights the EAD initiative as an approach to defining core competencies in a specific subject area (civics) and proposes an example badge relevant to one of the themes. Finally, DKP is offering a series of short, EAD-aligned virtual professional development workshops this year focused on supporting deeper civic learning in the classroom; the first session is on November 14, 2022.
- Nine exceptional teachers from across the nation were selected to participate in the first-ever iCivics Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Teacher Fellowship. The cohort worked in collaboration with iCivics staff and members of the EAD Implementation Consortium over the course of several months to develop an inquiry-driven, project-embedded, localizable U.S. history curriculum for 8th grade. This iCivics EAD curriculum is now being localized through pilots in three school districts—Jefferson County Public Schools (CO), Santa Fe Public Schools (NM), and Oklahoma City Public Schools (OK)–-to meet the needs and interests of each district’s students and communities and provide learnings for implementing the curriculum more broadly. Learn more about the district pilot program.
- RealClear Education has launched a new, free online resource for K-12 civic education at RealClear American Civics. Developed using the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy and carefully curated by veteran civics teacher Enrico Pucci, the website includes essential articles, primary and secondary resources, lesson plans, interactive games, and visual and audio resources to aid civics educators and inform students.
“The United States stands at the crossroads of peril and possibility.” Thus begins the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Report presented to the nation in March of 2021. The choice we make shouldn’t be left to chance—it must be guided by an intentional effort to implement high-quality civics and history education.
Following are five lessons that spanned across the 10-session EAD strand at NCSS 100, presented by 19 leaders from both within and outside of the social studies field. We encourage you to go back to sessions you missed in order to more fully understand the exciting and historic efforts to realize EAD’s potential.
Lesson #1: There’s something unique about this national moment, and we need to rise to it
In facilitating a fishbowl exercise during the Friday night EAD research session, Joseph Kahne of the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG) raised a simple, essential question: What is different about introducing a Roadmap like this now versus 10, 20, or 30 years ago? Kahne, joined by two other leading scholars (David Kidd of the Democratic Knowledge Project and Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg of CIRCLE), discussed a number of factors, including the proliferation of what is considered media and a declining trust in it; divides stemming from the nation’s increasing racial and ethnic diversity; and deepening ideological polarization. These themes came up again and again across sessions and reinforced what we knew: the overall health of our democracy is not a foregone conclusion.
One of the EAD Roadmap’s authors, Paul Carrese, noted during the opening session that there were parts of the documents with which reasonable people might disagree, but that such disagreement need not be feared. Reasoned, civil disagreement is a feature of a healthy democracy. As Shawn Healy and Abbie Kaplan of iCivics noted in their session, there is bipartisan consensus that more—and better—civics and history education is seen as a key solution for our nation’s challenges. That’s the promise of implementing the EAD Roadmap effectively.
Lesson #2: The promise of the EAD Roadmap lies in its capacity to crystallize and amplify best practices in civic education
The 19 individuals who presented as part of the EAD strand at the NCSS conference did not fall out of the sky during the March 2021 release of the EAD Roadmap. This is not building from scratch, but on a body of research and best practices. Kahne, Kawashima-Ginsberg, and Kidd highlighted the underlying research during their session and the theme carried across sessions that focused on practice and equitable implementation.
During their joint session on the EAD Pedagogy Companion, two current educators, Kimberly Eckert and Shannon Salter, highlighted the key moves and approaches to their existing practice that reinforced successful implementation. Meanwhile, Abigail Amoako Kayser and Renae Skarin of the English Learner Success Forum (ELSF) presented on how practices within the EAD Pedagogy Companion are particularly powerful for English learners and highlighted connections between the EAD Pedagogy Companion and Benchmarks of Quality for Serving English Learners. Similarly, the National Council of Teachers of English Executive Director, Emily Kirkpatrick, noted the natural way the EAD Roadmap reinforces best practice in English language arts that have been established and updated by the association for more than three decades. Indeed, session after session reaffirmed the power of the EAD Roadmap lies in its bold common sense and best practice. In other words, an outstanding educator will not have to look hard to see his or her practice reflected in the endeavor.
Lesson #3: Powerful learning happens within, not despite, tensions
As commonsensical as drawing in multiple perspectives, elevating student voice, centering learning on authentic inquiry, and other practices highlighted through the EAD Roadmap are, presenters were forthright and clear-eyed about the political minefield, educators—especially those in social studies —are asked to navigate.
Despite the challenges, it was inspiring to hear presenters and educators resolved to move forward. A session on historical tensions led by Ed Ayers and Annie Evans of New American History posited that high-quality learning happens in the tensions, or what EAD terms “Design Challenges.” Sessions led by Christina Ross and Sarah DeWitt of iCivics and Katharina Matro and Lois McMillan (teacher fellows with the American Historical Association and the National Council for History Education, respectively) highlighted that leaning into the tensions through emphasizing inquiry, presenting multiple perspectives, and empowering students with quality primary sources were exactly what the field and our democracy need right now.
Lesson #4: Inquiry is an act of trust
Beyond the question of whether it is wise to lean into historical tensions—a question answered with a resounding “yes”—there was also broad agreement across the sessions on how, namely by centering learning through powerful inquiry. Presenters described meaningful inquiry as an affirmation of the best of human nature—a trusting that, given great primary sources and prompts, students can join educators in civil, thoughtful, and strong learning.
Presenters described an art and a skill set to facilitate quality inquiry. InquirED CEO Shanti Elangovan described the criteria for great inquiries: avoid settled issues; focus on open, empirical, and/or policy issues; and lean into ethical questions that animate many of our nation’s and world’s most pressing challenges. In addition to Elangovan, a number of other sessions highlighted essential elements of strong inquiry, including presenting authentically important questions (see Eckert on Interdisciplinary Literacy session), setting a foundation with quality primary sources (see discussion during DeWitt and Ross’s session), and providing resources that address diverse viewpoints (see discussion during Ayers and Evans’ session).
Lesson #5: Learning is a set of interconnected decisions, not isolated phenomena
While ultimately rewarding, there is nothing inherently easy about this work. Multiple presenters highlighted the importance of having a system that supports these changes. Healy and Kaplan highlighted the systemic obstacles and underinvestment that educators are asked to overcome—for every $50 our nation spends on STEM education, an equivalent of 5 cents is spent on civics and history.
Building our field to where it needs to be and realizing the potential of the EAD Roadmap will require increased commitment through federal, state, and local policies (see discussion in Carrese and Waller’s opening session), and even through priorities decided upon inside school buildings. What’s more, as Salter pointed out in her presentation, the EAD Pedagogy Companion highlights that civic learning is most effective when it happens in a learning community that mirrors the best elements of real civic life.
As NCSS members, there is much to be proud of with the leadership role the association has played, is playing, and will continue to play in the EAD Roadmap’s development and success. However, that success will only bear fruit when dedicated professionals like you engage in the ongoing conversation: check out the sessions; join in the conversation through padlets and jamboards; promote events; curate resources; try out activities; inform the questions and research; set the record straight on what quality inquiry across tensions can look like; and become an advocate for high-quality civics and history education for all.
View all EAD strand sessions:
Session 1: EAD: What is It and How Can It Impact Social Studies?
Presenters: Paul Carrese (ASU School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership) and Tammy Waller (Arizona Department of Education)
Session 2: Inquiry is Key to Learning in Polarized Times
Presenter: Shanti Elangovan (InquirED)
Session 3: YOUR Classroom Companion: Educating for American Democracy Pedagogy
Presenters: Kimberly Eckert (2018 Louisiana Teacher of the Year) and Shannon Salter (EAD Implementation Consortium Member and educator)
Session 4: The Educating for American Democracy Roadmap: Show Me the Research!
Presenters: Joseph Kahne (Civic Engagement Research Group, UC Riverside); Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg (CIRCLE, Tufts); and David Kidd (Democratic Knowledge Project, Harvard)
Session 5: A Wonderful Marriage: Integrating History and Civics through the EAD Roadmap
Presenters: Lois MacMillan (National Council for History Education Teacher Advisory Committee member) and Katharina Matro (American Historical Association Counselor for Teaching Division)
Session 6: Powerful Learning within Historical Tensions
Presenters: Ed Ayers (New American History) and Annie Evans (New American History)
Session 7: It Takes a State: What States Can Do to Realize EAD’s Potential
Presenters: Shawn Healy (iCivics) and Abbie Kaplan (iCivics)
Session 8: Interdisciplinary Literacy: The Promise of the EAD Roadmap
Presenters: Kimberly Eckert (2018 Louisiana Teacher of the Year) and Emily Kirkpatrick (National Council for Teachers of English)
Session 9: Powerful Civics for All: Realizing the EAD Roadmap’s potential for ELLs
Presenters: Abigail Amoako Kayser (California State University-Fullerton, English Language Success Forum) and Renae Skarin (English Language Success Forum)
Session 10: We’re Going First with EAD and Here’s What We’re Learning
Presenters: Sarah DeWitt (iCivics) and Christina Ross (iCivics)
On-Demand Recordings
Professional Development Series - Session 1: Motivating Student Agency and Exploring America's Shared Story | View On-demand Recording
This three workshop series, led by Natacha Scott, Director of Educator Engagement at iCivics, will introduce educators to the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap by diving deeper into the design challenges, themes, and pedagogy principles. Each session will provide opportunities for participants to connect with peers, engage with the content of the Roadmap, and reflect on connections to their current instruction.
Our first EAD PD workshop discussed the first two design challenges focused on motivating student agency and exploring America’s shared story. This Session engaged participants in supporting their students to understand their roles as engaged citizens who also sustain civil disagreement and civic friendship. Additionally, participants began exploring how we can integrate the perspectives of Americans from diverse backgrounds into our narration of U.S. history.
Professional Development Series - Session 2: Teaching About Compromise and Honest Patriotism | View On-demand Recording
This three workshop series, led by Natacha Scott, Director of Educator Engagement at iCivics, will introduce educators to the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap by diving deeper into the design challenges, themes, and pedagogy principles. Each session will provide opportunities for participants to connect with peers, engage with the content of the Roadmap, and reflect on connections to their current instruction.
Our second EAD PD workshop discussed the design challenges focused on teaching about compromise and honest patriotism. This session engaged participants in understanding the tension of teaching about the value and the danger of compromise for a free, diverse, and self-governing people. Additionally, participants began to explore how we tell the story of our U.S. constitutional democracy that is honest about the failures and celebrates the successes.
Professional Development Series - Session 3: Connecting Chronological and Thematic Approaches to History and Civics Instruction | View On-demand Recording
This three workshop series, led by Natacha Scott, Director of Educator Engagement at iCivics, introduced educators to the Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap by diving deeper into the design challenges, themes, and pedagogy principles. Each session provided opportunities for participants to connect with peers, engage with the content of the Roadmap, and reflect on connections to their current instruction.
The third EAD PD workshop in our design challenge series focused on exploring how to connect chronological and thematic approaches to history and civics instruction. This session supported participants in making connections between their current approaches in the classroom and strategies that can engage students with moving between concrete and conceptual learning.
How Can We Ensure Our Sources of Information About Contemporary Debates and Possibilities are Accurate and Fair? with the Stanford History Education Group | View On-demand Recording
Join the Illinois Civics Hub and Dr. Joel Breakstone, Director of the Stanford History Education Group SHEG, for an informative webinar on how to combat misinformation with research-based strategies that teach students across the curriculum how to evaluate information that affects them, their communities, and the world. Learn how to weave the SHEG resources into your current practice to prepare students for college, career, and civic life. Walk away with ideas and FREE resources aligned to the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, Theme 7.
Building Better Rubrics for Student Feedback | View On-demand Recording
Standards implementation requires new thinking about how assessment can be used to support student growth. One of their key questions when building curriculum based on the standards is “how will we give students and stakeholders meaningful feedback that goes beyond measurement, but enhances learning?” Engage with resources, templates and strategies to create rubrics for performance assessment tasks in social studies. Walk away with new ideas and tools to enhance your current practice aligned with standards and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap Pedagogy Companion.
Using Performance Assessments in Social Studies | View On-demand Recording
Standards implementation requires new thinking about assessment. One of the key questions when building a curriculum based on the standards is “how will we know students have learned it?” The current standards require students to engage in content, disciplinary literacy practices, and inquiry. Educators have identified the need to create assessments where students can demonstrate competency in these areas. This workshop will introduce educators to strategies to build classroom performance assessment tasks aligned to standards where students get opportunities to demonstrate what they are learning. Educators will walk away resources, tools, templates, and strategies to create their own classroom performance assessment tasks aligned to the Educating for American Democracy Pedagogy Companion.
What is Constitutional Democracy? | View On-demand Recording
Join the Illinois Civics Hub and our Civics Learning Partners at iCivics for a webinar that shares both strategies and resources to help classrooms explore, What is Constitutional Democracy? Walk away with ideas aligned to the proven practices of civic education and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap., Theme 4- A New Government and Constitution.
Let’s Build an Inquiry! | View On-demand Recording
Experience resources to build your own classroom inquiry lessons. Walk away with ideas and resources aligned to the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap Pedagogy Companion.
Let’s Build an Inquiry! | View On-demand Recording
Experience resources to build your own classroom inquiry lessons. Walk away with ideas and resources aligned to the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap Pedagogy Companion.
How Does The Constitution Change Both Formally and Informally? | View On-demand Recording
Join the Illinois Civics Hub and the American Bar Association Division for Public Education as we explore the role of the amendments, both formal and informal, to make a more perfect union. Get connected with free resources and strategies to enhance your current practice aligned with the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, Theme 5- Institutional & Social Transformation.
Using Essential and Supporting Questions in Curriculum Design | View On-demand Recording
At the heart of inquiry, is the use of essential and supporting questions in curriculum design. Prepare for your summer curriculum project with strategies and resources to enhance your practice in facilitating student-centered inquiry across the social sciences. Walk away with ideas and FREE resources aligned to the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap Pedagogy Companion
Making Thinking Visible | View On-demand Recording
Do you want resources to help you know what students are thinking? Experience an inquiry utilizing metacognitive strategies from Harvard University’s Project Zero Visible Thinking Toolkit that can be used for both formative and summative assessment. Walk away with free, ready-to-use critical thinking protocols aligned to the Educating for American Democracy Pedagogy Companion. Appropriate for all grade levels.
What Different Perspectives are there on How Our Geographic, Social, Economic, and Political Landscape Changed Over Time and on the Benefits and Costs of Those Changes? | View On-demand Recording
Join the Illinois Civics Hub and the Chicago History Museum to explore how classroom inquiry around redlining can be used to help students examine how to take issues to informed action. Walk away with new ideas and tools to enhance your current practice aligned with Illinois Social Science standards and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, Theme 2 – Our Changing Landscape.
Creating a Collaborative and Reflective Classroom for Inquiry | View On-demand Recording
Student-centered deliberations and inquiry are at the core of emerging learning standards that span the curriculum. Learn research-based best practices in creating a safe environment for student participation in addressing the most essential questions facing our communities, Walk away with free resources and tools aligned to the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap to enhance your current practice.
How Has the Role of the Executive Branch Changed Across our History? | View On-demand Recording
Join the Illinois Civics Hub and Dr. Charles Flanagan, Outreach Supervisor for the Center for the Legislative Archives at the National Archives, to explore how to use online resources to teach about the development of U.S. foreign policy from the Age of Imperialism to the Cold War. The webinar will feature two eBooks and a classroom lesson highlighting 20th Century changes in America’s relationship to the world. The eBooks present political cartoons showing the evolution of U.S. foreign policy, from the Monroe Doctrine to America as a global leader. The cartoons also provide the context for Congress, the President, and the War Powers, a lesson examining the changing balance of power between the legislative and executive branches as America rose as a superpower. Walk away with new ideas and tools to enhance your current practice aligned with Illinois Social Science standards and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, Theme 6 – A People in the World.
Judge John F. Grady Virtual Summer Teachers Institute | View On-demand Recording
The ABA and the Northern District of Illinois District Court are thrilled to announce the launch of the Judge John F. Grady Virtual Summer Teachers Institute featuring a lecture and Q&A with Prof. Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean of Berkeley Law) and curriculum support from Mary Ellen Daneels (Lead Teacher Mentor for the Robert R. McCormick Foundation). Join our experts as we dig into the First Amendment by focusing on the rights to assembly and association and walk away with classroom-ready activities and resources.
Navigating Difficult Classroom Conversations: Strategies for Engaging Students in Social Issue Discussions | View On-demand Recording
Learn how to enhance your classroom practice of engaging students in civil discourse face to face or at a distance. Learn how to curate the right question, prompt, and strategy to meet your learning targets. Walk away with new ideas and tools to enhance your current practice aligned with standards and the Educating for American Democracy Pedagogy Companion.
What Values, Virtues, and Principles can Knit Together "We the People" of the United States of America? | View On-demand Recording
Join the Illinois Civics Hub and our Civics Learning Partners at the Bill of Rights Institute for a webinar that shares both strategies and resources to help classrooms explore, “What values, virtues, and principles can knit together ‘We, the People’ of the United States of America?” Walk away with ideas aligned to the proven practices of civic education embedded in the Illinois 6-8 and 9-12 civics course requirements and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, Theme 3 – We the People
Equipping Students to take the L.E.A.D. with Service Learning | View On-demand Recording
In this interactive session, explore how to design a curriculum to equip students to be responsible and participatory members of their community. Get connected with cross-curricular resources to provide meaningful and manageable service learning opportunities in your classroom aligned with the 6-8 and 9-12 civics course requirements and the Educating for American Democracy Pedagogy Companion and Roadmap.
What are the Responsibilities and Opportunities of Citizenship and Civic Agency in America’s Constitutional Republic? | View On-demand Recording
Join Illinois Civics and Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center IHMEC for an interactive webinar that teaches civics through history to prepare students for participation in our constitutional republic. Explore resources from IHMEC that you can use to enhance your classroom practice to help students address the essential question, How can I participate? Walk away with tools and strategies aligned to the Illinois Social Science standards, 6-8 and 9-12 civics course requirements, and the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, Theme 1 – Civic Participation.
Simulations of Democratic Processes: Do This, Not That! | View On-demand Recording
Simulation of Democratic Processes are a proven practice of civic education that build student knowledge of the institutions the gird our republic as well as skills and dispositions for civic participation. Learn how to prepare, implement and reflect on manageable simulation experiences. Walk away with free resources and strategies to enhance your classroom practice aligned with the 6-8 and 9-12 civics course requirements and the Educating for American Democracy Pedagogy Companion.
Classroom Resources Aligned to the Proven Practices of Civic Education | View On-demand Recording
Join the Illinois Civics Instructional Coaches as they share their favorite FREE resources aligned to the 6-8 and 9-12 civics course mandates and the Educating for Democracy Roadmap and Pedagogy Companion. Collaborate with others as you sharpen your saw and prepare for powerful civics in the 2021-22 school year.
Using Constitutional Law to Understand Academic Freedom in the Classroom with Dr. Steven D. Schwinn | View On-demand Recording
Join Dr. Steven D. Schwinn, Professor of Law at the UIC School of Law, for an examination of academic freedom in the classroom using both judicial precedents and current events, and pending cases that might shape this topic in the future. Deepen your understanding of how the First Amendment applies to students and educators. This webinar is aligned to Theme 7 of the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, “Contemporary Debates and Possibilities.”
Educating 4 Democracy: Opportunities for High-Quality Civic Learning with the Civic Engagement Research Group | View On-demand Recording
Join Dr. Erica Hodgin, Co-Director of the Civic Engagement Research Group (CERG) based out of the University of California Riverside (UCR) to learn about their new resource website focused on providing educators with the tools they need to prepare youth to participate in democratic society. The website Educating 4 Democracy offers a collection of videos and learning modules to help guide educators interested in learning how to provide high-quality civic learning opportunities to their students. With dedicated topic pages such as Civic Discussion & Deliberation and Civic Action, early and veteran teachers, leaders, and administrators alike will be able to take the civic development of their students to the next level. This webinar is aligned to Theme 1 of the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, “Civic Participation.”
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SCOTUS Preview | View On-demand Recording
Join Dr. Steven D. Schwinn, Professor of Law from the UIC Law School for a preview of the upcoming SCOTUS term. Walk away with insights to enhance your understanding of the courts. This webinar is aligned to Theme 5 of the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, “Institutional and Social Transformation.”
Avoiding the Rabbit Hole: Teaching Concepts in Conspiratorial Thinking | View On-demand Recording
Conspiracy theories are becoming part of mainstream discourse and public awareness. From political to pandemic-related beliefs to older ideas such as the Earth is flat, we are finding that more and more of our friends, family and loved ones believe at least one conspiracy theory. How do we teach students to avoid conspiracy theories without actually teaching them the specifics of such false beliefs? This session explores the psychological and cognitive factors behind conspiratorial thinking, including the role of fears and anxiety, cognitive dissonance and biases, motivated reasoning and institutional cynicism. We will discuss the ways in which conspiracy theories exploit our emotions as well as fill our emotional needs. As part of this session, we will outline essential learning objectives and concepts and provide instructional resources for integrating these concepts into the curriculum, including our free, interactive lesson which is part of the Checkology® virtual classroom. This webinar is aligned to Theme 7 of the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, “Contemporary Debates and Possibilities.”
Civic Online Reasoning in Science Classrooms | View On-demand Recording
Scientific misinformation abounds online. Join Dr. Joel Breakstone, Director of the Stanford History Education Group, to learn how to improve students’ ability to evaluate scientific information on the internet and incorporate Civic Online Reasoning in the classroom to support inquiry in STEM as well as the social sciences. This webinar is aligned to Theme 7 of the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap, “Contemporary Debates and Possibilities.”
